The values of a family enterprise
Manuel Scortegagna had imagined that the year after his firm Scortrans celebrated its 30th anniversary in 2019 would be a bit different. The owner and director, who is also the president of the road, railway and intermodal transport unit of the association Fedespedi, told Christian Doepgen in a virus-free exchange how his pan-European groupage services are faring – especially those to the Nordic countries.
Can we start out with a few key figures on your company please?
Scortrans was founded in 1989. Our team of 70 collaborators (Scortrans, Eurologisco, Scortexpress) make EUR 28 million a year.
How has your enterprise coped with the second shutdown in Italy?
The situation is different from April and May, as most Italian companies can continue to operate today. Early in November a partial lockdown started again, with regions designated yellow, orange and red, depending on how heavily they’re affected.
They haven’t closed firms in the Milan region – the heart of the Italy’s industry – but reduced services and closed schools; many people now work from home; this can create a vicious circle. Our region, the Veneto, is yellow for now; overall, business still remains relatively good.
How is European traffic doing?
The situation is quite good, all in all. Sweden stayed open, even in April and May, and that helped a lot. Business in Finland is currently comparable to last year’s level; in Denmark and Norway it’s a little lower. The Baltic states have suffered quite a lot, as have other markets such as Turkey, with the textiles and automotive sectors especially hard-hit. In the summertime we more or less managed to make up for our throughput decline in April and May; we handled about 20% less volumes during that downturn.
What are your key strategic goals after Scortrans’s 30th anniversary in 2019?
The possibility of creating opportunities and of opening up to other countries. We currently offer pan-European services, also through our network of agents. In the face of today’s core trends – digitalisation and standardisation – we’ll adhere to our work processes and our well-organised human services. On the basis of our long experience, with the shippers who we work with, and in the sector, we’ll provide a higher degree of flexibility, right through to the last minute, including in intermodal services, one of the key strengths of our family firm.
What does your Vicenza warehouse offer?
10,000 m2 and all the services needed, including air and sea freight options, customs and logistic solutions.
What are you particularly proud of?
Our groupage services, for example our Scortexpress links to and from Tampere and Helsinki (Finland). We operate daily departures from Italy to Finland, as well as to Denmark and Germany. Our connections to other European destinations operate two departures a week.